Rui Costa takes solo win on stage 16

A classic transitional stage brought the Tour to the Alps, and gave Movistar a stage win in the shape of Rui Costa. He was part of a stage-long break of 26, which included representatives of every team in the race apart from Sky and Belkin, none of whom posed the remotest threat to the general classification.

Costa’s win came after a decisive attack on his rapidly disintegrating group 20km from the finish on the final climb of the Col de Manse, followed by a controlled, confident descent and a time trial to the finish in Gap. He arrived with sufficient time in hand to allow him to start celebrating 700m from the finish and work his way through a full selection of victory salutes before reaching the line.

Meanwhile the composition of the break meant that the peloton had been able to extend its rest-day far into the stage. Team Sky tapped out a rhythm on the front, but were content to let the break take over 10 minutes.

On the deceptively difficult Col de Manse, however, the race for the GC fizzed back to life. As the peloton reached the climb, Katusha launched a train of three riders off the front of the bunch in an attempt to pull out a few seconds for Joaquim Rodríguez.

The attack quickly distanced most of the peloton, leaving an elite group including Naori Quintana (Movistar), Alberto Contador and Roman Kreuziger (Saxo-Tinkoff) and Bauke Mollema (Belkin). It also put Team Sky under immediate pressure, and Yellow Jersey Chris Froome was quickly left with only one teammate, Richie Porte, in the group.

The next attack, and the next, and the next all came from Alberto Contador. Porte chased down the first two, and Froome himself chased down the third personally, leaving the group with Contador on the front, mouth agape, and Froome comfortable-looking on his wheel.

Contador attacked again on the descent, chased again by Froome. They both had a significant scare when the Spaniard ran wide on and crashed on a corner, forcing Froome out onto the verge. ‘He was taking big, big risks,’ said Froome later, ‘and he fell off right in front of me. He was attacking uphill, down hill, it was always difficult.’

In the end, though, Porte re-appeared to chase both of them back to the remains of their group, and they finished together 11 minutes after Costa.